A look at the horrifying yet beautiful paintings of Joe Coleman.

BOOK OF JOE

Haden-Guest, Anthony

Coleman, Joe

Literature & Fiction

Last Gasp

Monsters and Magic

Children's Books

Troll Communications Llc

On highly-detailed canvases that are packed to the margins with strange symbols, bleeding body parts, Bible verses, and nightmare genitalia, Joe Coleman paints the wondrous carnival of his psychotic universe. His work is even blessed by a blurb from Charles Manson: "His art is something else. Praise! Praise! Praise! He's a caveman in a space ship." This is an artist no horror fan can afford to miss: He does serial killers, sideshow freaks, deranged sex, evil doctors, and religious iconography like no one else on Earth. This is a superb introduction to Coleman's world and work, with a biographical article, photos, 32 color plates, and numerous illustrations. Warning: Disturbing!

Cosmic Retribution: The Infernal Art of Joe Coleman

Arts & Photography

Individual Artists

Fantagraphics Books

On highly-detailed canvases that are packed to the margins with strange symbols, bleeding body parts, Bible verses, and nightmare genitalia, Joe Coleman paints the wondrous carnival of his psychotic universe. His work is even blessed by a blurb from Charles Manson: "His art is something else. Praise! Praise! Praise! He's a caveman in a space ship." This is an artist no horror fan can afford to miss: He does serial killers, sideshow freaks, deranged sex, evil doctors, and religious iconography like no one else on Earth. This is a superb introduction to Coleman's world and work, with a biographical article, photos, 32 color plates, and numerous illustrations. Warning: Disturbing!

Cosmic Retribution: Infernal Art of Joe Coleman

Reference

Catalogs & Directories

Feral House

Hardcover (never had a jacket) printed in metallic gold ink with hand-tipped-in die-cut illustrations. Limited edition of 2,000 made. These are direct from the publisher.

Joe Coleman: The Man of Sorrows

Distributed Art Pub Inc

Original Sin: The Visionary Art of Joe Coleman

Art. Artist Joe Coleman's ORIGINAL SIN contains visually stimulating and radically graphic nightmarish images. Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, historian Harold Schechter and art critic/poet John Yau contribute essays to this extremely dark "coffin table" book. Joe's work is often compared to illuminated manuscripts because of the great detail contained within each piece. His acrylic paintings depict acts of violence, some of which even include gory details of various body parts. Both sexual and revolting, the book contains material that may not be suitable for everyone.

Original Sin: The Visionary Art Of Joe Coleman

Green Candy Press

The drawings, paintings, photographs, and sculptures of Hans Bellmer (1902–1975) stand as some of the most important erotic artwork from the last century. An expert draftsman with a razor-sharp capacity for detail and an obsessive, unfettered imagination, Bellmer was able to powerfully render the imagery he saw in his mind’s eye. 
In the 1950s Hans Bellmer composed a small book in which he elucidated upon the psychosexual forces that provided the impetus for his artistic works. He described the project as "a kind of little anatomy of the (physical) unconscious with text and drawings. But it will also be a rather ‘dry’ work, by which I mean something tending to be exceedingly objective and avoiding, in the interests of clarity, whims of a verbal nature. It is the natural sequel to the experiments with the Doll, but should therefore encompass everything that Surrealism has brought to light. … But there is also a certain necessity in setting down this story, a necessity that is even quite enthralling." 
In 1957 the original French edition appeared of Bellmer’s Little Anatomy of the Physical Unconscious, or the Anatomy of the Image, with ten original illustrations by the artist. The book met with a positive reception from poets and literary figures such as André Breton and Jöe Bousquet, as well as a number of psychologists. Particularly impressed by the selection of poetic anagrams in the book, Man Ray telegrammed Bellmer the following anagram in response: "IMAGE = MAGIE" (Image = Magic). Although Bellmer may have striven to take an almost clinical "scientific" approach to his analysis of the physical unconscious, the work is nevertheless informed by a hyperdriven sensual awareness and a distinctly "magical" view of life. 
This is the first translation of Bellmer’s text to appear in English. After nearly half a century, a new audience of readers can experience his illumination of the "purely subjective" subconscious realm of our bodies which "finds nourishment in feverish, often psycho-pathological states, including that of sexual desire."

Little Anatomy of the Physical Unconscious: Or, The Anatomy of the Image

Moynihan, Michael

Bellmer, Hans

dominion

Baby socks are cute, but they cause mischief in this wonderfully illustrated, silly, and imaginative story full of exploration & love. A perfect "sing-song" rhyming story to read to your little one at bedtime.

Baby Socks: A Bedtime Story

Growing Up & Facts of Life

Independently published

A complete monograph of the unique and subversive artist Joe Coleman, the “walking ghost of old America.” Joe Coleman paints incredibly detailed portraits of sinners, saints, freaks, and personal friends that collectively present a dark history of America. Painting with a single-hair brush and a jeweler’s loupe, the artist states he only knows when the painting is done because he runs out of room on the canvas. With a body of work that spans five decades (including his early work as a comic book artist), Coleman’s work includes subjects such as Hank Williams, Ed Gein, Jayne Mansfield, and his wife and muse, Whitney Ward. 
Coleman not only captures his subject’s likeness, but his portraits also serve as ambitious narratives of the subject’s life. Told in lozenges scattered throughout the often-larger-than-life works, the portraits contain scenes from the subject’s life and words and phrases. Coleman is not afraid to explore the dark reaches of the human psyche, but also portrays a distinct humanity in his subjects and often includes a touch of humor. 
A Doorway to Joe collects over 150 paintings and comprehensively illustrated sections and essays about Coleman’s fine art, comics art, music career (as front man of the ’70s punk band, the Steel Tips), performance art, and the artist’s “Odditorium,” a private museum where sideshow objects, wax figures, crime artifacts and works of religious devotion live together to form a dark mirror that reflects the alternative side of the American psyche. Featuring a foreword by museum director Mike McGee, an introduction by musician Tom Waits, and essays by art critics, curators, and impresarios including Rebecca Lieb, Dan Cameron, Nicholas Hall, Darius Spieth, Steven Holmes, Kimiko Hahn, Latitia Ante Delictum, Jonathon Shaw, Monte Beauchamp, Clemens Marschall, Sara Fortson, Walton Ford, and Carlo McCormick. Full-color illustrations throughout

A Doorway to Joe: The Art of Joe Coleman

Fantagraphics

Finallty, the complete monograp with all the work of the unique and subversive artist Joe Coleman  The visions of Joe Coleman; monstre sacré of the New York City art scene, infamous for his explosive performances and the eschatological sentiments of his icon-like paintings; have often been described as subtended by binary oppositions—the sacred and the profane, sinfulness and morality, the hero and the outcast, the artist within and/or against the rest of the world. These contradictory forces coexist, dividing us all, and Coleman’s paintings, like obsidian mirrors, reflect them in their perpetual and often disquieting negotiation.

Doorway to Joe, The Art of Joe Coleman

History & Criticism

Cernunnos

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Books by Coleman, Joe